Spanish broadcaster Rtve and production companies Tornasol and DeAPlaneta have teamed with German production-sales company Zdf Enterprises on “Ana. all in,” a legal thriller starring Maribel Verdú based on Spanish author Roberto Santiago’s best-seller “Ana.” Representing the series internationally, Zdfe will be presenting the series at MipT. Variety was able to speak with the series’ lead actor ahead of the Cannes-based market.
“Ana. all in” turns on Ana, a small-time lawyer thrust into the underground world of illegal gambling when her brother is accused of killing the manager of the Gran Castilla Casino. After assembling a small but energetic team, this Spanish Erin Brockovich goes head-to-head with the Goliath that is one of the world’s largest gambling industries.
Ana’s best friend Concha is played by fellow Spanish standout Natalia Verbeke (“The Other Side of the Bed”), and is one of the most significant people in Ana’s...
“Ana. all in” turns on Ana, a small-time lawyer thrust into the underground world of illegal gambling when her brother is accused of killing the manager of the Gran Castilla Casino. After assembling a small but energetic team, this Spanish Erin Brockovich goes head-to-head with the Goliath that is one of the world’s largest gambling industries.
Ana’s best friend Concha is played by fellow Spanish standout Natalia Verbeke (“The Other Side of the Bed”), and is one of the most significant people in Ana’s...
- 4/9/2021
- by Jamie Lang
- Variety Film + TV
The helmer has wrapped the shoot for this tense Movistar+ series, the cast of which includes Natalia Verbeke, Ernesto Alterio, Leonardo Sbaraglia and Juan Diego Botto. Todos mienten (lit. “They’re All Lying”) is a thriller written and directed by Barcelona-born Pau Freixas (Deadly Cargo), toplined by Irene Arcos, Natalia Verbeke, Leonardo Sbaraglia and Ernesto Alterio, who are flanked by Juan Diego Botto, Miren Ibarguren, Eva Santolaria (who previously worked with the filmmaker on Héroes), Amaia Salamanca, Jorge Bosch and Carmen Arrufat, the big revelation from Lucía Alemany’s feature debut, The Innocence. Principal photography – which began in October and took place on location in Barcelona, Tarragona and Girona – is just wrapping now, after a shoot that was forced to adhere to the requisite health-and-safety measures to ensure that it could go ahead while halting the spread of the coronavirus. The synopsis tells of how the peaceful life of the.
A Polish-born Holocaust survivor decides to travel from Buenos Aires to Lodz to fulfill a promise he made nearly 70 years earlier in Argentine writer-director Pablo Solarz’s touching, albeit occasionally heavy-handed, drama “The Last Suit.” Thankfully, this late-life road movie also boasts plenty of poignant and humorous moments that will play well with older viewers and those seeking Jewish-interest content. After reaping numerous audience awards on the festival circuit, the film begins a U.S. theatrical run in New York on Sept. 21, before expanding to Los Angeles on Sept. 28 and later the hinterlands via small but enterprising distribution outfit Outsider Pictures.
Despite a bum right leg that he nicknames “tzuris” because of the aggravation it gives him, stubborn, 88-year-old retired tailor Abraham Bursztein still has plenty of fight and flair left in him. Unfortunately, his family refuses to recognize it. Bursztein, like some latter-day King Lear, has already foolishly divided his property among his daughters,...
Despite a bum right leg that he nicknames “tzuris” because of the aggravation it gives him, stubborn, 88-year-old retired tailor Abraham Bursztein still has plenty of fight and flair left in him. Unfortunately, his family refuses to recognize it. Bursztein, like some latter-day King Lear, has already foolishly divided his property among his daughters,...
- 9/19/2018
- by Alissa Simon
- Variety Film + TV
Warm-hearted but silly French comedy, set in 1960 and starring the excellent Fabrice Luchini as a stockbroker in the stuffy world of the Parisian haute bourgeoisie. He falls for the family's new Spanish maid (Natalia Verbeke) and begins a social revolution among the inhabitants of the sixth-floor servants' quarters, who include Almodóvar favourites Carmen Maura and Lola Dueñas.
ComedyWorld cinemaJason Solomons
guardian.co.uk © 2012 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds...
ComedyWorld cinemaJason Solomons
guardian.co.uk © 2012 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds...
- 7/8/2012
- by Jason Solomons
- The Guardian - Film News
The Amazing Spider-Man (12A)
(Marc Webb, 2012, Us) James Garfield, Emma Stone, Rhys Ifans, Martin Sheen, Sally Field, Denis Leary. 136 mins
New, improved-formula Spider-Man: does whatever last decade's Spider-Man couldn't! The world was hardly screaming out for a rejigged "origins" story, but this at least gives you less comic-book primary colour and more teen-drama shading. Plus better special effects, although the rooftop monster-battle climax feels same-old. Yes, it's a brazenly commercial exercise, but Garfield's limber geekiness tips the balance.
God Bless America (15)
(Bobcat Goldthwait, 2011, Us) Joel Murray, Tara Lynne Barr, Mackenzie Brooke Smith. 105 mins
American media idiocy literally comes under fire in this outlandish Falling Down-meets-Natural Born Killers shooting spree.
The Hunter (15)
(Daniel Nettheim, 2011, Aus) Willem Dafoe, Frances O'Connor, Sam Neill. 102 mins
Dafoe's craggy gravitas dominates this scenic tale of a hunt for the extinct (or is it?) Tasmanian Tiger.
Strawberry Fields (15)
(Frances Lea, 2012, UK) Anna Madeley, Christine Bottomley.
(Marc Webb, 2012, Us) James Garfield, Emma Stone, Rhys Ifans, Martin Sheen, Sally Field, Denis Leary. 136 mins
New, improved-formula Spider-Man: does whatever last decade's Spider-Man couldn't! The world was hardly screaming out for a rejigged "origins" story, but this at least gives you less comic-book primary colour and more teen-drama shading. Plus better special effects, although the rooftop monster-battle climax feels same-old. Yes, it's a brazenly commercial exercise, but Garfield's limber geekiness tips the balance.
God Bless America (15)
(Bobcat Goldthwait, 2011, Us) Joel Murray, Tara Lynne Barr, Mackenzie Brooke Smith. 105 mins
American media idiocy literally comes under fire in this outlandish Falling Down-meets-Natural Born Killers shooting spree.
The Hunter (15)
(Daniel Nettheim, 2011, Aus) Willem Dafoe, Frances O'Connor, Sam Neill. 102 mins
Dafoe's craggy gravitas dominates this scenic tale of a hunt for the extinct (or is it?) Tasmanian Tiger.
Strawberry Fields (15)
(Frances Lea, 2012, UK) Anna Madeley, Christine Bottomley.
- 7/6/2012
- by Steve Rose
- The Guardian - Film News
A hit in France, this retro clowdpleaser is a victim of its own stodginess
Consider this the French equivalent of The Help: a retro crowdpleaser just mild and evasive enough to have become a massive hit on home turf. The starchy 1960s household of Fabrice Luchini and Sandrine Kiberlain unravels with the arrival of a new maid: the moderately fiery Spaniard María Gonzalez, played by Natalia Verbeke. Luchini almost rescues it from its own complacency, but the script is equal parts blocked toilets and soft-boiled eggs.
Rating: 2/5
World cinemaComedyMike McCahill
guardian.co.uk © 2012 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds...
Consider this the French equivalent of The Help: a retro crowdpleaser just mild and evasive enough to have become a massive hit on home turf. The starchy 1960s household of Fabrice Luchini and Sandrine Kiberlain unravels with the arrival of a new maid: the moderately fiery Spaniard María Gonzalez, played by Natalia Verbeke. Luchini almost rescues it from its own complacency, but the script is equal parts blocked toilets and soft-boiled eggs.
Rating: 2/5
World cinemaComedyMike McCahill
guardian.co.uk © 2012 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds...
- 7/5/2012
- by Mike McCahill
- The Guardian - Film News
DVD Release Date: March 13, 2012
Price: DVD $27.99
Studio: Strand Releasing
Say hello to The Women on the 6th Floor.
Popular and pleasing European actresses Carmen Maura (Law of Desire), Sandrine Kiberlain (Madamoiselle Chambon) and Natalia Verbeke (The Method) serve up some solid “upstairs/downstairs” laughs in the 2010 French-Spanish comedy The Women on the 6th Floor.
The film is set in Paris, 1960, where the world of bourgeois couple Jean-Louis (Fabrice Luchini, Potiche) and Suzanne (Kiberlain) is turned upside-down when they hire a Spanish maid named María (Verbeke). Through María, Jean-Louis is introduced to a wacky kind of alternative lifestyle on the building’s sixth floor, the servants’ quarters. There, he befriends a group of sassy Spanish maids, refugees of the Franco regime, who teach him there’s more to life than stocks and bonds, and whose influence on the house will ultimately transform everyone’s life.
Directed and co-written by Philippe Le Guay,...
Price: DVD $27.99
Studio: Strand Releasing
Say hello to The Women on the 6th Floor.
Popular and pleasing European actresses Carmen Maura (Law of Desire), Sandrine Kiberlain (Madamoiselle Chambon) and Natalia Verbeke (The Method) serve up some solid “upstairs/downstairs” laughs in the 2010 French-Spanish comedy The Women on the 6th Floor.
The film is set in Paris, 1960, where the world of bourgeois couple Jean-Louis (Fabrice Luchini, Potiche) and Suzanne (Kiberlain) is turned upside-down when they hire a Spanish maid named María (Verbeke). Through María, Jean-Louis is introduced to a wacky kind of alternative lifestyle on the building’s sixth floor, the servants’ quarters. There, he befriends a group of sassy Spanish maids, refugees of the Franco regime, who teach him there’s more to life than stocks and bonds, and whose influence on the house will ultimately transform everyone’s life.
Directed and co-written by Philippe Le Guay,...
- 2/1/2012
- by Laurence
- Disc Dish
The Women On The 6th Floor is a new period comedy/ drama from France that surprisingly has much in common with one of 2011′s American blockbusters, The Help. Both films are set in the societal upheaval of the early 1960s and both concern the travails of domestic workers and their employers. While the Us version was tied to the civil rights movement ( with literally life and death at stake ), the French story is more concerned with social class structure along with a second chance romance. Still both films have a great deal of empathy for the sometimes invisible ” hired help”.
Jean Louis ( Fabrice Luchini) is a successful investment consultant at his old, established family banking firm in 1960′s Paris. He and his status-seeking socialite wife, Suzanne ( Sandrine Kiberlain ) and two spoiled preteen sons ( usually away at an exclusive boarding school ) reside in a large downtown apartment complex. Living above Jean Louis...
Jean Louis ( Fabrice Luchini) is a successful investment consultant at his old, established family banking firm in 1960′s Paris. He and his status-seeking socialite wife, Suzanne ( Sandrine Kiberlain ) and two spoiled preteen sons ( usually away at an exclusive boarding school ) reside in a large downtown apartment complex. Living above Jean Louis...
- 11/4/2011
- by Jim Batts
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Strand Releasing Berta Ojea and Fabrice Luchini
The cheery tone and smiling lead actors of Philippe Le Guay’s latest film, “The Women on the 6th Floor,” embody the false assumption of nostalgic perfection. There are no problems in this polished version of 1960s Paris — families are whole, food is plentiful and the Fourth French Republic is strong.
But Le Guay, who turns 55 later this month, meant for the film to have a sunny disposition. “We wanted to create a sort of distinct ambiance,...
The cheery tone and smiling lead actors of Philippe Le Guay’s latest film, “The Women on the 6th Floor,” embody the false assumption of nostalgic perfection. There are no problems in this polished version of 1960s Paris — families are whole, food is plentiful and the Fourth French Republic is strong.
But Le Guay, who turns 55 later this month, meant for the film to have a sunny disposition. “We wanted to create a sort of distinct ambiance,...
- 10/11/2011
- by Nick Andersen
- Speakeasy/Wall Street Journal
The women on the sixth floor in the French period film The Women On The 6th Floor are Spanish maids, and while they’re trapped doing menial household tasks, they’re also earthy and fun, with a zest for life unfamiliar to their starchy, wealthy Parisian employers who inhabit the fancy apartments in the lower floors. One of those, stockbroker and building owner Fabrice Luchini, discovers their world after his wife (Sandrine Kiberlain) hires a new housekeeper—the pretty Natalia Verbeke, who proves an irresistible lure away from the conservative existence where he’s been stuck. This comedy from writer-director ...
- 10/6/2011
- avclub.com
Title: The Women on the 6th Floor Directed By: Philippe Le Guay Written By: Philippe Le Guay Cast: Fabrice Luchini, Sandrine Kiberlain, Natalia Verbeke, Carmen Maura Screened at: Review 2, NYC, 9/15/11 Opens: October 7, 2011 Folks in the U.S. Tea Party might be horrified to note-if they can catch subtle clues-that the writer-director has communist or at least socialist tendencies, and that his leftist views come to fruition in the story. This is not to say that “The Women on the 6th Floor” is principally political, which it is only in the broad sense. Instead, Philippe Le Guay’s interest is in amusing his audience while painlessly giving us a...
- 9/16/2011
- by Brian Corder
- ShockYa
Chicago – For the first time, a foreign film festival in Chicago will focus solely on the latest and greatest works from France. On July 22nd, the Music Box Theatre will kick off its three-day inaugural festival of French cinema, featuring eight pictures that have recently garnered praise from audiences and festival goers around the globe. It may prove to be just the ticket for movie buffs bored with summer blockbusters and outdated superheroes.
Bookending this year’s festival are appearances by two major figures in the French film industry. Director/co-writer Jean-Pierre Améris will be present for the opening night screening of his neurotic comedy, “Romantics Anonymous,” starring Benoît Poelvoorde (“Man Bites Dog”) and Isabelle Carré (“Private Fears in Public Places”). The picture was a surprise hit in France, thus rekindling interest in Améris’s acclaimed body of work (his 2004 drama “Lightweight” was screened at Cannes).
One of the country’s most respected veteran actresses,...
Bookending this year’s festival are appearances by two major figures in the French film industry. Director/co-writer Jean-Pierre Améris will be present for the opening night screening of his neurotic comedy, “Romantics Anonymous,” starring Benoît Poelvoorde (“Man Bites Dog”) and Isabelle Carré (“Private Fears in Public Places”). The picture was a surprise hit in France, thus rekindling interest in Améris’s acclaimed body of work (his 2004 drama “Lightweight” was screened at Cannes).
One of the country’s most respected veteran actresses,...
- 7/20/2011
- by adam@hollywoodchicago.com (Adam Fendelman)
- HollywoodChicago.com
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
It has been given the more toner-friendly English language title of Service Entrance, but comic French drama Les Femmes Du 6eme Etage translates literally as The Women on the 6th Floor. Shown out of competition in Berlin, the film was very warmly received thanks in part to the performances of its sweet and amiable leading man, Fabrice Luchini, and its beautiful Spanish leading lady played by Natalia Verbeke. These actors combine with the film’s leisurely pacing and entertaining scenario to ensure that it is a winsome and inoffensive crowd-pleaser.
The film, set in the 1960s, follows a wealthy, middle-aged Parisian stockbroker named Jean-Louis (Luchini) whose long-standing maid quits following a row with his demanding wife Suzanne (Sandrine Kiberlain). Unable to clean up after themselves, the couple desperately need a new maid. But when Suzanne’s high society friends insist French maids aren’t the done thing anymore,...
It has been given the more toner-friendly English language title of Service Entrance, but comic French drama Les Femmes Du 6eme Etage translates literally as The Women on the 6th Floor. Shown out of competition in Berlin, the film was very warmly received thanks in part to the performances of its sweet and amiable leading man, Fabrice Luchini, and its beautiful Spanish leading lady played by Natalia Verbeke. These actors combine with the film’s leisurely pacing and entertaining scenario to ensure that it is a winsome and inoffensive crowd-pleaser.
The film, set in the 1960s, follows a wealthy, middle-aged Parisian stockbroker named Jean-Louis (Luchini) whose long-standing maid quits following a row with his demanding wife Suzanne (Sandrine Kiberlain). Unable to clean up after themselves, the couple desperately need a new maid. But when Suzanne’s high society friends insist French maids aren’t the done thing anymore,...
- 2/15/2011
- by Robert Beames
- Obsessed with Film
Officials from the 61st Berlin Film Festival on Tuesday unveiled the Competition program for this year’s event. It includes 22 films, 16 of which will be competing for the awards.
In addition there will be two special screenings: In solidarity with the convicted Iranian director Jafar Panahi, his film “Offside” will be presented on Feb. 11, the anniversary of the Iranian Revolution. Also, the European premiere of Werner Herzog’s 3-D documentary “Cave of Forgotten Dreams” will be shown as a special screening in the Berlinale Palast.
The winner of the Golden Bear will be announced at the festival awards ceremony on Feb. 19.
The following is the complete Berlinale Competition program.
“A Torinói Ló” (“The Turin Horse”) Hungary/France/Germany/Switzerland
Directed by Béla Tarr
With János Derzsi, Erika Bók, Mihály Kormos
World premiere
“Almanya – Willkommen in Deutschland” (“Almanya”) Germany
By Yasemin Samdereli – debut film
With Vedat Erincin, Fahri Yardin, Aylin Tezel,...
In addition there will be two special screenings: In solidarity with the convicted Iranian director Jafar Panahi, his film “Offside” will be presented on Feb. 11, the anniversary of the Iranian Revolution. Also, the European premiere of Werner Herzog’s 3-D documentary “Cave of Forgotten Dreams” will be shown as a special screening in the Berlinale Palast.
The winner of the Golden Bear will be announced at the festival awards ceremony on Feb. 19.
The following is the complete Berlinale Competition program.
“A Torinói Ló” (“The Turin Horse”) Hungary/France/Germany/Switzerland
Directed by Béla Tarr
With János Derzsi, Erika Bók, Mihály Kormos
World premiere
“Almanya – Willkommen in Deutschland” (“Almanya”) Germany
By Yasemin Samdereli – debut film
With Vedat Erincin, Fahri Yardin, Aylin Tezel,...
- 1/19/2011
- by admin
- Moving Pictures Network
TORONTO -- Canadian producer Peace Arch Entertainment Group on Tuesday said it has acquired the international sales rights to Arritmia, the Rupert Evans-starring thriller about a prisoner escaping from Gunatanamo. The picture from Spanish producer Iker Monfor that began production last month in Spain also stars Derek Jacobi and Natalia Verbeke (Son of the Bride). Writer and directing credits belong to Spanish director Vincente Penarrocha (Fuera Del Cuerpo), while Michiyo Yoshizaki (Titus, Basquiat) is producing. The thriller about a prisoner facing the brutality of an internment camp and elusive freedom outside its gates was brought to Peace Arch by Penny Wolf, recently installed executive vp of international sales and marketing at the Vancouver-based company.
- 11/8/2005
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
It's not too early to start anticipating that this outstanding Argentine-Spanish co-production will be one of the Academy Award nominees for foreign film. Close to perfection in every regard, provoking more laughs and tears than all the films one sees in any given season combined -- and a movie that would make such masters as Frank Capra and Billy Wilder proud -- "Son of the Bride" (El Hijo de la Novia) earned the Special Grand Prix of the Jury award in main competition at the World Film Festival of Montreal (HR 9/4).
Director and co-writer Juan Jose Campanella worked for much of the past decade in the United States in television and won two Emmy Awards for directing. He co-wrote the screenplay of "Son" with Fernando Castets after the pair collaborated on Campanella's 1999 feature "Same Love, Same Rain". While the Spanish-language "Son" has strong appeal to mature audiences, a smart domestic distributor could take it on the art house circuit, where the film could achieve a resounding success.
Rafael (Ricardo Darin) is a 42-year-old restaurant owner and divorcee who wants to change his life. Always on his cell phone dealing with work problems, he's got a beautiful girlfriend (Natalia Verbeke) and a loyal staff, but money problems and pressures to sell his business are taking a toll. He has a young daughter who lives most of the time with his ex-wife, while his aging father, Nino (Hector Alterio), who started the restaurant Rafael took over, is a gentle, supportive soul.
The title refers to Nino's desire to grant the decades-long wish of his wife, Rafael's mother (Norma Aleandro), who is suffering from Alzheimer's disease, to have a church wedding. In scene after exquisite scene one gets to knows these characters and sympathize with them. Rafael is a man in crisis who does not judge others and does not blame the world for his problems. But he's also not always aware of how much love and support he has to help him get to the next stage of life.
When he has a heart attack but recovers to nearly his former energetic self, Rafael decides he needs more "freedom" and sells the restaurant, while also contemplating a move to Mexico. Fortunately, those around him, including a childhood friend-turned-actor (Eduardo Blanco), are not altogether behind him, and the lead makes the best of what he's already got.
From the constant stream of little jokes and bittersweet moments involving his parents, work and the women in his life to the unabashedly emotional peaks, Rafael's story is so uncommonly rendered with cinematic skill that it frankly leaves one delirious with admiration. The cinematography, music, editing and, most of all, the performances cannot be praised too much.
SON OF THE BRIDE
Pol-ka Prods., Patagonik Film Group
Jempsa, Tornasol Films
Director: Juan Jose Campanella
Screenwriters: Juan Jose Campanella, Fernando Castets
Producers: Adrian Suar, Fernando Blanco
Director of photography: Daniel Shulman
Production designer: Juan Vera
Editor: Camilo Antolini
Music: Angel Illaramendi
Color/stereo
Cast:
Rafael: Ricardo Darin
Nino: Hector Alterio
Norma: Norma Aleandro
Juan Carlos: Eduardo Blanco
Naty: Natalia Verbeke
Running time -- 123 minutes
No MPAA rating...
Director and co-writer Juan Jose Campanella worked for much of the past decade in the United States in television and won two Emmy Awards for directing. He co-wrote the screenplay of "Son" with Fernando Castets after the pair collaborated on Campanella's 1999 feature "Same Love, Same Rain". While the Spanish-language "Son" has strong appeal to mature audiences, a smart domestic distributor could take it on the art house circuit, where the film could achieve a resounding success.
Rafael (Ricardo Darin) is a 42-year-old restaurant owner and divorcee who wants to change his life. Always on his cell phone dealing with work problems, he's got a beautiful girlfriend (Natalia Verbeke) and a loyal staff, but money problems and pressures to sell his business are taking a toll. He has a young daughter who lives most of the time with his ex-wife, while his aging father, Nino (Hector Alterio), who started the restaurant Rafael took over, is a gentle, supportive soul.
The title refers to Nino's desire to grant the decades-long wish of his wife, Rafael's mother (Norma Aleandro), who is suffering from Alzheimer's disease, to have a church wedding. In scene after exquisite scene one gets to knows these characters and sympathize with them. Rafael is a man in crisis who does not judge others and does not blame the world for his problems. But he's also not always aware of how much love and support he has to help him get to the next stage of life.
When he has a heart attack but recovers to nearly his former energetic self, Rafael decides he needs more "freedom" and sells the restaurant, while also contemplating a move to Mexico. Fortunately, those around him, including a childhood friend-turned-actor (Eduardo Blanco), are not altogether behind him, and the lead makes the best of what he's already got.
From the constant stream of little jokes and bittersweet moments involving his parents, work and the women in his life to the unabashedly emotional peaks, Rafael's story is so uncommonly rendered with cinematic skill that it frankly leaves one delirious with admiration. The cinematography, music, editing and, most of all, the performances cannot be praised too much.
SON OF THE BRIDE
Pol-ka Prods., Patagonik Film Group
Jempsa, Tornasol Films
Director: Juan Jose Campanella
Screenwriters: Juan Jose Campanella, Fernando Castets
Producers: Adrian Suar, Fernando Blanco
Director of photography: Daniel Shulman
Production designer: Juan Vera
Editor: Camilo Antolini
Music: Angel Illaramendi
Color/stereo
Cast:
Rafael: Ricardo Darin
Nino: Hector Alterio
Norma: Norma Aleandro
Juan Carlos: Eduardo Blanco
Naty: Natalia Verbeke
Running time -- 123 minutes
No MPAA rating...
Friday, Aug. 29
Sundance Film Series
An all-singing, all-dancing take on infidelity, Spain's "El Otro Lado de la Cama" (The Other Side of the Bed) is a big fluff ball of a sex farce that's so light and flimsy it's a wonder they were able to thread it through the projector.
That apparently suited audiences just fine back home, where the picture, from veteran comedy director Emilio Martinez-Lazaro, was one of the country's top-grossing 2002 releases and went on to receive half a dozen Goya Award nominations.
Screened at the just-wrapped Los Angeles Latino International Film Festival, it's also one of a group of independent films being released in 10 American markets this fall as part of the inaugural Sundance Film Series.
But it's unlikely "The Other Side of the Bed" will have much of an impact on this side of the pond, considering, among other things, the lack of familiarity viewers will have with the contemporary Spanish pop hits covered by the game but decidedly not golden-throated cast members.
Madrid provides a vivid setting for the ensuing passion that surrounds a pair of couples who have trouble sticking with their original configurations.
To start with, Paula (Natalia Verbeke) has just dumped Pedro (Guillermo Toledo) for a Mystery Man who turns out to be his best buddy and tennis partner Javier (Ernesto Alterio). As Javier keeps the charade going for as long as he can, his in-the-dark girlfriend Sonia (Paz Vega) ultimately provides despondent Pedro with more than a shoulder on which to cry.
Figuring something's up when Sonia fails to come home one night, Javier is convinced she's having an affair -- with a lesbian friend from her theater company.
If all this sounds like it's stuck in some kind of sitcom-y "Love, Iberian Style" vortex, it's probably because David Serrano's cutesy, coincidence-riddled script does little to suggest otherwise.
The big novelty here is that in between all the coupling and recoupling, each of the attractive cast members finds time to express their inner emotions in song and dance -- and the fact that no one in the ensemble can pull off either particularly well actually makes it all rather endearing, at least in the early going.
But after a while, the innocuous tunes, with (translated) titles like "Honeymoon" and "Tell Me That You Love Me", and Pedro Berdayes' charmingly clunky but spirited choreography (imaginatively set in places like health club bathrooms and museums) begin to grow as labored as the script's tangle of deceiving appearances.
Ultimately, those likable actors, particularly Sonia's Paz Vega, who was recently seen in "Talk to Her" and "Sex and Lucia", go a considerable distance in making "The Other Side of the Bed" a comfy but quickly forgettable destination.
The Other Side of the Bed
A Sundance Channel presentation
Credits:
Director: Emilio Martinez-Lazaro, Screenwriter: David Serrano
Producers: Tomas Cimadevella, Jose Antonio Sainz de Vicuna
Director of photography: Juan Molina Temboury
Art director: Julio Torrecilla
Editor: Angel Hernandez-Zoido
Costume designer: Inma Garcia
Music: Roque Banos
Choreographer: Pedro Berdayes
Cast:
Javier: Ernesto Alterio
Sonia: Paz Vega
Pedro: Guillermo Toledo
Paula: Natalia Verbeke
Rafa: Alberto San Juan
Pilar: Maria Esteve
Sagaz: Ramon Barea
Running time -- 114 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
Sundance Film Series
An all-singing, all-dancing take on infidelity, Spain's "El Otro Lado de la Cama" (The Other Side of the Bed) is a big fluff ball of a sex farce that's so light and flimsy it's a wonder they were able to thread it through the projector.
That apparently suited audiences just fine back home, where the picture, from veteran comedy director Emilio Martinez-Lazaro, was one of the country's top-grossing 2002 releases and went on to receive half a dozen Goya Award nominations.
Screened at the just-wrapped Los Angeles Latino International Film Festival, it's also one of a group of independent films being released in 10 American markets this fall as part of the inaugural Sundance Film Series.
But it's unlikely "The Other Side of the Bed" will have much of an impact on this side of the pond, considering, among other things, the lack of familiarity viewers will have with the contemporary Spanish pop hits covered by the game but decidedly not golden-throated cast members.
Madrid provides a vivid setting for the ensuing passion that surrounds a pair of couples who have trouble sticking with their original configurations.
To start with, Paula (Natalia Verbeke) has just dumped Pedro (Guillermo Toledo) for a Mystery Man who turns out to be his best buddy and tennis partner Javier (Ernesto Alterio). As Javier keeps the charade going for as long as he can, his in-the-dark girlfriend Sonia (Paz Vega) ultimately provides despondent Pedro with more than a shoulder on which to cry.
Figuring something's up when Sonia fails to come home one night, Javier is convinced she's having an affair -- with a lesbian friend from her theater company.
If all this sounds like it's stuck in some kind of sitcom-y "Love, Iberian Style" vortex, it's probably because David Serrano's cutesy, coincidence-riddled script does little to suggest otherwise.
The big novelty here is that in between all the coupling and recoupling, each of the attractive cast members finds time to express their inner emotions in song and dance -- and the fact that no one in the ensemble can pull off either particularly well actually makes it all rather endearing, at least in the early going.
But after a while, the innocuous tunes, with (translated) titles like "Honeymoon" and "Tell Me That You Love Me", and Pedro Berdayes' charmingly clunky but spirited choreography (imaginatively set in places like health club bathrooms and museums) begin to grow as labored as the script's tangle of deceiving appearances.
Ultimately, those likable actors, particularly Sonia's Paz Vega, who was recently seen in "Talk to Her" and "Sex and Lucia", go a considerable distance in making "The Other Side of the Bed" a comfy but quickly forgettable destination.
The Other Side of the Bed
A Sundance Channel presentation
Credits:
Director: Emilio Martinez-Lazaro, Screenwriter: David Serrano
Producers: Tomas Cimadevella, Jose Antonio Sainz de Vicuna
Director of photography: Juan Molina Temboury
Art director: Julio Torrecilla
Editor: Angel Hernandez-Zoido
Costume designer: Inma Garcia
Music: Roque Banos
Choreographer: Pedro Berdayes
Cast:
Javier: Ernesto Alterio
Sonia: Paz Vega
Pedro: Guillermo Toledo
Paula: Natalia Verbeke
Rafa: Alberto San Juan
Pilar: Maria Esteve
Sagaz: Ramon Barea
Running time -- 114 minutes
MPAA rating: R...
- 8/20/2003
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
It's not too early to start anticipating that this outstanding Argentine-Spanish co-production will be one of the Academy Award nominees for foreign film. Close to perfection in every regard, provoking more laughs and tears than all the films one sees in any given season combined -- and a movie that would make such masters as Frank Capra and Billy Wilder proud -- "Son of the Bride" (El Hijo de la Novia) earned the Special Grand Prix of the Jury award in main competition at the World Film Festival of Montreal (HR 9/4).
Director and co-writer Juan Jose Campanella worked for much of the past decade in the United States in television and won two Emmy Awards for directing. He co-wrote the screenplay of "Son" with Fernando Castets after the pair collaborated on Campanella's 1999 feature "Same Love, Same Rain". While the Spanish-language "Son" has strong appeal to mature audiences, a smart domestic distributor could take it on the art house circuit, where the film could achieve a resounding success.
Rafael (Ricardo Darin) is a 42-year-old restaurant owner and divorcee who wants to change his life. Always on his cell phone dealing with work problems, he's got a beautiful girlfriend (Natalia Verbeke) and a loyal staff, but money problems and pressures to sell his business are taking a toll. He has a young daughter who lives most of the time with his ex-wife, while his aging father, Nino (Hector Alterio), who started the restaurant Rafael took over, is a gentle, supportive soul.
The title refers to Nino's desire to grant the decades-long wish of his wife, Rafael's mother (Norma Aleandro), who is suffering from Alzheimer's disease, to have a church wedding. In scene after exquisite scene one gets to knows these characters and sympathize with them. Rafael is a man in crisis who does not judge others and does not blame the world for his problems. But he's also not always aware of how much love and support he has to help him get to the next stage of life.
When he has a heart attack but recovers to nearly his former energetic self, Rafael decides he needs more "freedom" and sells the restaurant, while also contemplating a move to Mexico. Fortunately, those around him, including a childhood friend-turned-actor (Eduardo Blanco), are not altogether behind him, and the lead makes the best of what he's already got.
From the constant stream of little jokes and bittersweet moments involving his parents, work and the women in his life to the unabashedly emotional peaks, Rafael's story is so uncommonly rendered with cinematic skill that it frankly leaves one delirious with admiration. The cinematography, music, editing and, most of all, the performances cannot be praised too much.
SON OF THE BRIDE
Pol-ka Prods., Patagonik Film Group
Jempsa, Tornasol Films
Director: Juan Jose Campanella
Screenwriters: Juan Jose Campanella, Fernando Castets
Producers: Adrian Suar, Fernando Blanco
Director of photography: Daniel Shulman
Production designer: Juan Vera
Editor: Camilo Antolini
Music: Angel Illaramendi
Color/stereo
Cast:
Rafael: Ricardo Darin
Nino: Hector Alterio
Norma: Norma Aleandro
Juan Carlos: Eduardo Blanco
Naty: Natalia Verbeke
Running time -- 123 minutes
No MPAA rating...
Director and co-writer Juan Jose Campanella worked for much of the past decade in the United States in television and won two Emmy Awards for directing. He co-wrote the screenplay of "Son" with Fernando Castets after the pair collaborated on Campanella's 1999 feature "Same Love, Same Rain". While the Spanish-language "Son" has strong appeal to mature audiences, a smart domestic distributor could take it on the art house circuit, where the film could achieve a resounding success.
Rafael (Ricardo Darin) is a 42-year-old restaurant owner and divorcee who wants to change his life. Always on his cell phone dealing with work problems, he's got a beautiful girlfriend (Natalia Verbeke) and a loyal staff, but money problems and pressures to sell his business are taking a toll. He has a young daughter who lives most of the time with his ex-wife, while his aging father, Nino (Hector Alterio), who started the restaurant Rafael took over, is a gentle, supportive soul.
The title refers to Nino's desire to grant the decades-long wish of his wife, Rafael's mother (Norma Aleandro), who is suffering from Alzheimer's disease, to have a church wedding. In scene after exquisite scene one gets to knows these characters and sympathize with them. Rafael is a man in crisis who does not judge others and does not blame the world for his problems. But he's also not always aware of how much love and support he has to help him get to the next stage of life.
When he has a heart attack but recovers to nearly his former energetic self, Rafael decides he needs more "freedom" and sells the restaurant, while also contemplating a move to Mexico. Fortunately, those around him, including a childhood friend-turned-actor (Eduardo Blanco), are not altogether behind him, and the lead makes the best of what he's already got.
From the constant stream of little jokes and bittersweet moments involving his parents, work and the women in his life to the unabashedly emotional peaks, Rafael's story is so uncommonly rendered with cinematic skill that it frankly leaves one delirious with admiration. The cinematography, music, editing and, most of all, the performances cannot be praised too much.
SON OF THE BRIDE
Pol-ka Prods., Patagonik Film Group
Jempsa, Tornasol Films
Director: Juan Jose Campanella
Screenwriters: Juan Jose Campanella, Fernando Castets
Producers: Adrian Suar, Fernando Blanco
Director of photography: Daniel Shulman
Production designer: Juan Vera
Editor: Camilo Antolini
Music: Angel Illaramendi
Color/stereo
Cast:
Rafael: Ricardo Darin
Nino: Hector Alterio
Norma: Norma Aleandro
Juan Carlos: Eduardo Blanco
Naty: Natalia Verbeke
Running time -- 123 minutes
No MPAA rating...
IMDb.com, Inc. takes no responsibility for the content or accuracy of the above news articles, Tweets, or blog posts. This content is published for the entertainment of our users only. The news articles, Tweets, and blog posts do not represent IMDb's opinions nor can we guarantee that the reporting therein is completely factual. Please visit the source responsible for the item in question to report any concerns you may have regarding content or accuracy.